1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin hopper that sorts and feeds coins one by one, which coins are stored in bulk in a storing chamber.
Particularly, the present invention relates to the coin hopper that sorts and feeds coins one by one which have different diameters and are stored in bulk in a storing chamber.
More particularly, the present invention relates to the coin hopper that can precisely separate and feed the coins one by one which have diameters of 20 millimeters to 26 millimeters.
More particularly, the present invention relates to the coin hopper that can convey coins having different diameters in a specified direction after sorting and feeding the coins one by one.
The coins include coins serving as current money, medals and tokens of game machines, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
As a first conventional technique, a coin hopper is known that can sort and dispense coins one by one which are stored in bulk in a storing chamber of a storing bowl and have different diameters; wherein, a circular supporting rack that protrudes at the center of the rotating disk is arranged on an upper surface of an upwardly inclined rotating disk, coin stoppers are arranged radially from the supporting rack side so as to freely advance to and retreat from the surface of the rotating disk, a coin receiving knife is arranged at a specified position, a coin supported by the supporting rack and pushed by the coin stoppers is received in the circumferential direction of the rotating disk by the receiving knife, and, after the coin is received, the coin stoppers are pushed into the rotating disk by the receiving knife to cause the receiving knife to retreat (see Patent Document 1).
As a second conventional technique, there is known a coin hopper according to an application of the present applicant comprised of: coin stoppers that are upwardly inclined at a specified angle, have a circular supporting rack formed at the center of the upper surface thereof, and expand radially at regular intervals in a circumferential direction from the supporting rack side; a rotating disk that causes the surfaces of the coins to contact a holding surface between the coin stoppers, receives the coins one by one, supports them by the supporting rack, and feeds them out; an outer cover that surrounds at least the lower outer circumference of the rotating disk; a storing bowl that stores coins in bulk after the outer cover; and a coin receiving device that expands from the vicinity of the supporting rack to the circumferential direction of the rotating disk; wherein the coin stoppers are arranged in a state fixed to the rotating disk, and the coin receiving device is arranged so as to be able to contact and get away from the holding surface of the rotating disk (see Patent Document 2).
As a third conventional technique, there is known a coin hopper, wherein part of a coin housing hopper surrounding a bored disk rotor is cut out to form a coin lead-out opening from a coin conveying path implemented by the rotation of the rotor, the width of an opening with which a coin dispensing roller facing the upstream side thereof and a separate roller facing the downstream side thereof are opposed to each other is kept narrower than the diameter of a minimum coin, while the width of an opening with which an upstream-side opening edge of the coin lead-out opening and the separate roller are opposed to each other is kept wider than the diameter of a maximum coin, coins are smoothly dispensed when the rotor is rotated forward at the upstream-side opening edge of the coin lead-out opening, and a coin guiding wall surface that collects and returns coins to the coin conveying path when the rotor is rotated backward is formed (see Patent Document 3).
As a fourth conventional technique, there is known a coin delivery device of a coin processing apparatus according to an application of the present applicant, which holds coins in sorting concave parts arranged in an upper surface of a rotating disk and sorts the coins one by one and then transfers the coins to a coin carrier; wherein the sorting concave parts of the rotating disk are open in the upper surface side of the rotating disk, have fan shapes open to the circumferential surface side of the rotating disk, have coin pushing parts at parts thereof, and are provided with moving bodies that form part of the sorting concave parts and are capable of moving in the diameter direction of the rotating disk; the moving body is positioned in the side of the coin pushing part when the coin is received and is moved to the circumferential opening side when the coin is transferred to the coin carrier (see Patent Document 4).
[Patent Document 1] European Patent Application Publication No. 0957456 (FIG. 1 to FIG. 7 and page 2 to page 4)
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-97322 (FIG. 1 to FIG. 10 and Paragraph Numbers 0088 to 0029)
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 4343199 (FIG. 3 to FIG. 33 and Paragraph Numbers 0001 to 0090)
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent No. 4784806 (FIGS. 1 to 5, Paragraph Numbers 0018 to 0053)
In the first conventional technique, the coin stoppers of for example eight plate-like bodies are arranged radially at regular intervals and are elastically biased so as to protrude from the surface of the rotating disk, and, after the coin stoppers transfer coins to the receiving knife, the coin stoppers are pushed into the rotating disk by the receiving knife and retreated.
This coin hopper can dispense coins held between the coin stoppers and therefore has an advantage that it can dispense coins of diameters in a specified range.
However, there is a problem that downsizing is limited since the receiving knife is arranged outside of an outer edge of the rotating disk.
As well as the first conventional technique, the second conventional technique includes the rotating disk, the coin stoppers, and the receiving knife. Since the receiving knife is opposed to the upper surface of the rotating disk, it can be more downsized than the first conventional technique. However, the angle of the rotating disk has to be inclined to nearly a vertical state so that the coins do not reach the receiving knife unit, and a storing unit of coins has to be arranged in front of the rotating disk. If the storage amount of the coins is increased, the diameter of the rotating disk has to be increased and/or the storing chamber of the coins has to be expanded to the front of the rotating disk, and there is a problem that downsizing is limited.
In the third conventional technique, a disk-rotor main body (rotating disk) having circular coin receiving holes (through holes) is horizontally arranged at a bottom hole of a body tube (storing bowl), coins are dropped and sorted one by one into the through holes by the rotation of the rotating disk, the coins are guided in the circumferential direction by coin receiving/stopping pins while the sorted coins are pushed by rear curved wings (pushing pieces) formed on a lower surface of the rotating disk, and the coins are pushed into the part between the coin separate roller and the coin dispensing roller and flicked by the coin dispensing roller; therefore, this is more suitable for downsizing than the first and second conventional techniques. However, the positions of the coin receiving/stopping pins (regulating pins) are common to the coins of all diameters. There are optimum positions corresponding to the diameters of the coins as the positions of the regulating pins; however, the pins are not arranged at suitable positions in some cases since the pins are set so as to correspond to the plurality of coins having different diameters. Specifically, if the straight line connecting the regulating pin and the contact point of the pushing piece and the circumferential surface of the coin passes through the center of the coin, the rotating disk is in a lock state sandwiching the coin, in other words, the sandwiching force of the coin is maximized, the sandwiching force is reduced as it gets away from the center of the coin, and the moving distance of the rotating disk in the circumferential direction is sequentially reduced; and, if they are too distant, the moving distance of the rotating disk in the circumferential direction is small and cannot be used in practice. If the sandwiching force is large, pressed dents are formed on the sandwiched coins; therefore, the pins are set at the positions where the moving distance is maximized within the range of the sandwiching force that does not form the pressed dents.
Coins of Japanese yen will be taken as examples for explanation. The diameter of a 500-yen coin which is a maximum diameter is 26.5 millimeters, and the 1-yen coin having the minimum diameter is 20 millimeters. Therefore, when the moving distance necessary for the 500-yen coin is taken into consideration, the connecting line is close to the coin center with respect to the 1-yen coin, wherein the sandwiching force is set to be larger than that of the optimum position thereof. Moreover, since the 1-yen coin is made of aluminum having low hardness, there is a problem that, in some cases, the coin may be sandwiched between the regulating pins and the pusher resulting in formation of a pressed dent.
In the fourth conventional technique, after the coins are sorted into the fan-shaped sorting concave parts of the rotating disk, the held coins are pushed in the circumferential direction of the rotating disk by the moving bodies, which move in the circumferential direction; therefore, there is an advantage that the coins having different diameters in a specified range can be suitably transferred to a next step. However, since the sorting concave parts holding the coins are open, no coin can be present at the position opposed to the sorting concave part at a feeding position; therefore, the rotating disk has to be inclined like the first conventional technique, and the storage amount of the coins is limited since the pressures applied to the moving bodies cannot be increased. In other words, there is a problem that the coin storage amount is small.